Re: [xsl] Converting a string to a node and changing the scope

[Jeni Tennison <jeni@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi James,

> 1) I am passing a string as a parameter into a template. Can I treat
> the string as if it were a reference to a node.

Not in standard XSLT/XPath. Many processors have extensions that
enable you to evaluate a string as an XPath expression, however. For
example saxon:evaluate() or dyn:evaluate() from EXSLT:

  <xsl:value-of select="dyn:evaluate($mystring)" />

Have a look at your processor documentation to work out whether your
processor supports something like this; even if it doesn't, you might
be able to write one of your own using DOM methods.
  
> 2) I realise that xsl:for-each will change the current scope.
> However, if I wanted to call a template, but in a different scope,
> is there a proper way of changing the scope?

You could wrap the call to the template within a xsl:for-each, I
suppose. However, usually when the current node matters to a template,
I make it a matching template rather than a named template, with a
mode to distinguish it from other templates, and then apply templates
to the node that I want to process. Or you could pass the node as a
parameter if you prefer. For example, rather than:

  <xsl:for-each select="somenode">
    <xsl:call-template name="sometemplate" />
  </xsl:for-each>

you could do:

  <xsl:apply-templates select="somenode" mode="sometemplate" />

or:

  <xsl:call-template name="sometemplate">
    <xsl:with-param name="node" select="somenode" />
  </xsl:call-template>

Cheers,

Jeni

---
Jeni Tennison
http://www.jenitennison.com/


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